By:  Pam Melton

The Big Easy® Oil-less Infrared Turkey Fryer

Mfg:  Char-Broil® (available on charbroil.com for $159.99)

Retail:  Sears/HSN.com - $129; Lowes/Amazon.com - $139.99; Dick’s Sporting Goods/ACE - $169.00  

Please note:  price shop conducted online on 10/25/09.  Retail location pricing may differ. 

Well, Sports Fans, we ran into this little baby at the 2009 National Hardware Show®.  The thought intrigued me so, I was determined that I was not leaving without checking out this tailgating convenience marvel.  Now understand, if you’ve never had to deal with a humongous pot of hot grease in a parking lot in 20 degree weather, I’m not sure you can reach the levels of anticipation that engulfed me.

Suffice it to say, I left Vegas with visions of a Big Easy® in my yard/on my deck/ on the boat/ ……  While I could ask for it as a Mother’s Day/Anniversary/Birthday/whatever present, I figured I’d just get it for my husband.  This approach keeps my gifts list more open, gives him something that could potentially be woody-inducing and gets me access to a Big Easy®.  Alas, my cousin Doug remembered me going on and on about this thing, so he picked one up for us when he ran across it at Lowe’s®.  You Rock Cous!

Assembly was easy, only requiring a medium Phillips head screwdriver (#2 for those who must know).  You have to install 4 feet, 2 handles, the control panel and 2 knobs.  I know this sounds simple, but as usual, I still managed to make a mistake.  I left the heat shield off before attaching the control panel and had to take it back off and put the heat shield in.  I swear sometimes I could screw up a wet dream.  Anyways, assembly took me about 20 minutes, no broken fingernails and no scrapes.

To prepare the fryer for use, you are directed to oil the cooking basket and chamber in order to season it – a la cast iron skillet.  You then turn the fryer on for 15 minutes and it’s seasoned.  The first question of the day arose when the hubby asked what the temp setting should be for this process.  Lo and behold, there is no temp setting.  It’s on or off – that’s it.  The other knob is the igniter.  I’m already digging the simplicity (not to mention not having to dump 10 gallons of oil into the thing).

Our first foray into infrared frying was this massive Amazonian roasting chicken.  Since one of the advantages of the Big Easy® over deep frying is the ability to put a dry rub on the meat, which is exactly what I did.  I have injectable marinade, used on many an oil-fried fowl – but it went unused so that we could evaluate per the manufacturer’s assertions.  So get this – all we had to do; hook up the propane canister, turn on the fryer, rub the bird down and stick it in the basket.  The directions all pushed the fact that the propane canister needed to be full, but hey, we used what we had, a propane canister that was as far from full as you can get and still have gas.  It worked just fine, but I’m sure there’s some reason that Char-Broil® would prefer a full one – whatever.

General recommendation on cooking time is 10 minutes per pound.  Our inaugural poultry was 7.5 lbs, so the estimated cooking time was 1 hour, 10 minutes.  At the end of the prescribed time (yep we checked the internal temp to be sure), we turned the fryer off and left the chicken to sit for 10 minutes, per the cooking guide.  Let me tell you, the skin on that bird was as crispy as it looks.  The chicken was so moist that my husband had to really check it out to make sure that it was done!  Neither one of us thinks that we have ever eaten a juicier bird – and this comes from seasoned beer butt chickeners.  It was truly fabulous and I’m not exaggerating.

Clean up is in the realm of Pampered Chef® stoneware and cast iron skillets.  Use a good brush (not a scratchy one) to knock of any loose stuff and wipe it down – seriously.  This was the most hassle-free big meat experience that either of us have ever had.  The ease in care, the fact that it’s a healthier way to fry and not having to deal with all of that grease makes the difference in cooking time from traditional frying a trade off that I’m more than willing to make.

 

Since this is our first use, I can’t comment on the performance and maintenance over time, but I’ll keep you appraised of any happenings.  Right now, I would have to strongly recommend adding it to the wish list of anyone who wants or needs to cook big meat.  Char-Broil® includes a few recipes in the box, but you can get more from their digital space.  You can cook anything from poultry to a pork loin to ribs and veggies in this thing.  One note – the meat thermometer that came with our model was a little weird.  At first we thought it was broken, but it worked just fine.

  I give the Big Easy® 5 fingernails.  Great job Char-Broil®! 

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